Most Delicious Chocolate Chip Banana Bread In The World...........

This is my family's favorite banana bread recipe.  It's too good not to share!





Preheat the oven to 350 F degrees.  And grease a bread pan.

In a large bowl combine 1/2 cup butter, softened, and 3/4 cup sugar (I used sucanat, which is an unrefined sugar, but you can use any kind of sugar you want).  Blend it until it's light and fluffy.

Next mash up two medium sized bananas.

Then measure out 1/2 cup of sour cream or unsweetened/plain yogurt.  Add the banana and sour cream/yogurt to the mix and blend well.

 Add 2 cups all purpose flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1 tsp. baking soda and mix it up.

Blend it well.

Next add about 3/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and blend them in.  You can use more or less depending on how chocolate-y you want your bread.

Put the dough in your greased (and floured if you want) pan and stick it in the oven for approx. 55-65 min. or until a toothpick inserted in the center of it comes out clean.  Cool for 15 min. then take the bread out of the pan.

The last thing left to do is enjoy!

Have a great day!
Emily

A New Outfit For Dolly

I recently made this new outfit for a 18" doll.  It has three pieces: a shirt, jeans, and a scarf.  

I experimented with the different settings on the camera, and this is what came out.  The colors POP!

Here are the jeans.  I used a Pixie Faire pattern found here.  I love this pattern and have made many pairs of jeans using it.

I used my mom's sewing machine to do some decorative stitching on the pockets.....

And the shirt was made with the free Tank Top pattern, also from Pixie Faire.

Have a great day!

Emily

Bookmarks......

This Christmas, I crocheted two of these bookmarks for my Mom.  I used a free pattern I found on Ravelry.  I used size 10 cotton crochet thread, a size 6 steel crochet hook, and some pink scrap ribbon.  They came out really pretty!  They look very delicate and elegant.  I'm thinking about making some for my Bible too!

Here's a picture of both of the bookmarks together.  If interested, you can find the pattern here.  I hope to be posting more pictures of items I made as gifts for Christmas very soon.


Have a great day!
Emily

Happy 4th Of July!!!

Wishing everyone a happy 4th of July!  These pictures were taken from our next-door neighbor's fireworks display.  It was huge!

Have a great day!
Emily

At The End Of The Rainbow..........

We've had rain practically everyday for what seems like weeks now.  Two of my siblings were playing outside.  They came running in saying "There's a rainbow outside!"  So I ran and got the camera and snapped a picture.

God's creation is beautiful!

Have a great day!
Emily

A New Dress For Dolly

I recently made this sundress from some scrap fabric I had.  I think it came out pretty cute!

This dress was made from a Heritage Doll Fashions pattern available through Liberty Jane Clothing.

Here's a picture that shows the entire dress.  The fabric has a white background with teal flowers.

It ties at the shoulders.

And this is the crocheted flower that comes with the dress to go in her hair!  Here's the link to the dress on Etsy .

Have a great day!
Emily

Two New Items In The Shop!

I have been a busy busy bee lately cutting out and sewing doll clothes.  And here are a couple of items I've made recently.

This skirt is made from a Liberty Jane Clothing pattern.  And is in my opinion, ADORABLE!  The link to it on Etsy is here  SOLD!

Another picture of the skirt.

It also has a frayed edge.

This hat was my own design and I think it looks really cute with the lime green and hot pink color combination. And the here's the link to it on Etsy.



Have a great day!
Emily

A New Dress For Dolly

A few years ago I found out about Liberty Jane Clothing,  and I made several t-shirts for my dolls from their patterns.   I had completely forgotten about how much I loved their patterns until a couple of days ago.


The dress pictured above is the Drawstring Dress.  I was able to complete this dress in about two hours.  The directions are great and it is absolutely adorable.  I can see myself making a lot of these dresses for my dolls this summer!

Plastic Yarn Tutorial

I recently learned how to make plarn (plastic bag yarn). It has been really cool making and crocheting it lately. Last night I realized that I shouldn't keep this all to myself. So I figured I would make a tutorial on it.

What you will need:

*Plastic bags, pretty much any kind will work.

*Scissors

*Ruler (optional)

First, take your bag and lay it out on the table.

Then fold it in half lengthwise.

Fold the bag in half again.

Cut off the handles and the bottom. You can throw these away.

Start cutting strips about 1 in. wide. You can pretty much just eyeball it to see where you need to cut. Measuring is not crucial, but it determines how many strips you will get from each bag.

When you are done it should look like this.

Take two strips and unfold them.

Take one of the loops and loop it through the other one.

Pull one of the loops up through the other loop and pull. Be careful to not pull too hard because we are working with thin plastic which tears easily.

The knot will look like this.

Repeat these steps until you have a big heap of plarn on the floor. Wind the plarn into a ball as you normally would yarn. After that you are free to use your plarn as you please!!!

I choose to make a soap dish with mine. I'm thinking of making it a free pattern.

I think that most people who have not made plarn would think "It's made out of bags it would be too stiff. I don't want to work with that." First of all, feel a plastic bag, it's not rough, in fact it's very smooth. Second, if you use a big enough hook. Plarn is very flexible when crocheted.

So I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Happy plarn-making!!!

Spring is on its way.....

.....At last. I am sooo excited that spring is finally here. We have had a hard winter. So when the flowers started to bloom Ethan and me went and picked some and brought them in the house.

I was looking through a kids sewing book a few days ago and found these cute bags then decided to make them. They were very easy and fun to sew. Although I don't know what I'm going to do with them yet.

This is my favorite one. I haven't cut any threads or anything yet, but I'm getting there.

My siblings and I made some Easter crafts that I still need to take pictures of. Hopefully I can do that really soon.